GRAYSON COUNTY, TEXAS, IN DEPRESSION AND WAR: 1929‐1946 David Park, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2009 APPROVED: Randolph B. Campbell, Major Professor Richard B. McCaslin, Committee Member and Chair of the Department of History J. Todd Moye, Committee Member Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Park, David. Grayson County, Texas, in Depression and War: 1929‐1946. Master of Arts (History), August 2009, 156 pp., 2 tables, bibliography, 54 titles. The economic disaster known as the Great Depression struck Grayson County, Texas, in 1929, and full economic recovery did not come until the close of World War II. However, the people of Grayson benefited greatly between 1933 and 1946 from the myriad spending programs of the New Deal, the building of the Denison Dam that created Lake Texoma, and the establishment of Perrin Army Air Field. Utilizing statistical data from the United States Census and the Texas Almanac, this thesis analyzes the role of government spending‐federal, state, and local‐in the economic recovery in Grayson County. Copyright 2009 by David Park ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER I: THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1929‐1933 1 CHAPTER II: SAM RAYBURN 28 CHAPTER III: THE FIRST NEW DEAL IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1933‐1935 38 CHAPTER IV: THE SECOND NEW DEAL IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1935‐1939 60 CHAPTER V: THE DENISON DAM AND DEVELOPMENT IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1939‐1941 98 CHAPTER VI: WAR YEARS IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1941‐1945 124 CHAPTER VII: EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION 142 WORKS CITED 152 iii CHAPTER I THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN GRAYSON COUNTY, 1929‐1933 There have been many crises in the history of our country. We have had wars; we have had depressions; we had a war between the States when the lightning of sectional antagonism threatened to shatter this mighty Republic. We had the panic of 1873, of 1893, and 1914 to 1918 the earth was swallowed up in the greatest reign of madness it had ever known, when ideals were shattered and hearts were made sick. In my opinion, the most serious, far‐reaching and dangerous crisis that ever threatened this country were the years from 1929 until March 4, 1933. More people had lost the faith of their childhood in governments and in men and had done it to such an extent that we stood upon the verge of disaster. ‐ Sam Rayburn Texas, the United States, and indeed nearly the entire world, experienced massive changes between the years 1929 and 1946, beginning with an international financial crisis, followed by a second world war. During this time, the Lone Star State encountered unprecedented growth that transformed it from a primarily rural, agricultural state into the industrial giant it is today. While major industrial centers, such as Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston, were obviously and unquestionably changed throughout these years, the Great Depression and World War II also had a major impact on many of the State’s essentially agricultural areas such as Grayson County in North Texas. How exactly, did the Great Depression affect Grayson County? How effective were the New Deal programs in dealing with the Depression in that North Texas county? 1 How did Grayson acquire the Denison Dam and Perrin Army Air Field, and what did they mean to the county’s economy? What ultimately brought Grayson County out of the Depression and Why? Through an examination of Grayson County during the formative years from 1929 to 1946, these questions will be answered. Very little has been written about Grayson County in general, especially with regard to the region during the twentieth‐century. Most of the works that do exist fall into the categories of either “personal anecdotes” or “promotional pamphlets”. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a narrative account and an in depth analysis of the country’s history during the Great Depression and World War II.1 Located in north central Texas, Grayson County is situated between the Red River to the north, Fannin County to the east, Cooke to the west, and Collin and Denton to the south. Organized from Fannin, Grayson was founded on March 17, 1846, by an act of the Texas legislature, and named for the Attorney General of the Republic of Texas, Peter W. Grayson. The same legislation also designated that the County seat be called Sherman (in honor of General Sidney Sherman, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution), as a way to compromise between supporters of the pro‐ Houston Democrat Grayson and the anti‐Houston Whig Sherman. Within four years of 1 Examples of personal anecdotes are: Grayson County Frontier Village, The History of Grayson County, Texas (Tulsa: Heritage Publishing Company, 1981); Jerry Bryan Lincecum and Roland Carlisl Vaughan, The Life and Times of Grayson County, Texas (Sherman: Big Barn Press, 2006); Don Eldredge, Reflections: Sharing Sherman and Grayson County’s Past, vol. I (Marceline: D‐Books Pub., 1994); and, Don Eldredge, Reflection II: Grayson County’s Past (Marceline: D‐Books Pub., 1996). Examples of promotional pamphlets are: Ed. I. Anderson, History and Business Guide of Sherman, Denison and Grayson County, Texas (‐‐‐‐, 1948); Jack Maguire, A Short History of Denison, Texas, “The Gate City” (Denison: F.W. Miller Print Co., 1938); Charles A. Spears, Your town: Past, Present, Future (Sherman: Grayson Bank, 1967); and Neilson Rogers and Joe C. Henderson, Grayson County, Where the West Began (Sherman: A‐1 Print Co., 1998). 2 its founding, Grayson had a population of 2,008, and reported eleven public schools (only six counties throughout Texas could claim more) and 35 churches. The county’s farmers worked 5,891 improved acres.2 During the 1850s, Grayson was the most important county of the region because it marked a major division point on the route to California, especially in 1858 when Sherman was designated a way station stop of the Butterfield Overland Route to San Francisco. Thus, by the census of 1860, the population had increased to 8,184, the number of improved acres of farm land to 40,775, and businessmen had begun to operate mills for flour and corn meal.3 Following the Civil War, from 1870 to 1880 Grayson County experienced growth unparalleled in its entire history due to the arrival of several railroad lines. Sherman obtained a link to the Houston and Texas Central Railroad in 1872, but its residents did not provide the incentive to appeal to the officials of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad (Katy) for a similar connection. Instead, railroad executives created the townsite of Denison (named after George Denison, the vice president of the Katy), and the company entered Texas from the North when the very first train arrived on Christmas Day, 1872. This connection was the first to a national rail system that extended to the Northeast, and, once Denison also obtained stops from the St. Louis, 2 The Texas Almanac and State Industrial Guide (Dallas: A. H. Belo & Co., 1952), 551‐552; Ron Tyler, Douglas E. Bornett, Roy R. Barkley, Penelope C. Anderson, and Mark F Ordinits (eds.), The New Handbook of Texas (6 vols.; Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1996), III, 298 (Grayson County); V, 1021 (Sherman, Texas); Donna J. Kumler, “’They Have Gone From Sherman’: The Courthouse Riot of 1930 and its Impact on the Black Professional Class” (Ph.D. diss., University of North Texas, 1995), 16. 3 Tyler, Bornett, Barkley, Anderson, and Ordinitz (eds.), Handbook of Texas, III, 298 (Grayson County); V, 1022 (Sherman); Kumler, “They Have Gone”, 16‐17. 3 San Francisco and Texas, and the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf railroads, it became the county’s primary rail town. By 1882, just ten years after the first rail line arrived in the county, there were over 100 miles of track in Grayson.4 With the rail lines came new industries, including two cotton presses, a large flour mill and a slaughterhouse in Denison, and five flour mills and the largest grain elevator north of Dallas in Sherman. By 1880 there were thirty‐seven manufacturing establishments in Grayson County, with flour and grist mills accounting for twenty‐two of the businesses. As a result of this expansion of the railroads and manufacturing, between 1870 and 1880 the population of Grayson County increased 254 percent from 14,387 to 38,108, and the number of farms rose by 460 percent. The value of real estate jumped from $1,224,069 to $4,352,986, and personal property from $641,826 to $2,707,760. With such growth, several new towns were created, including Van Alstyne, Howe, Whitewright, Pottsboro, and Tom Bean. Grayson County was now a leading agricultural, marketing and milling center of North Texas.5 Grayson County and both Sherman and Denison continued to expand during the late nineteenth century, gaining additional rail lines, manufacturing and milling industries. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, two new lines were extended into Grayson County, giving it ten railroads and outlets in every direction to 4 Tyler, Bornett, Barkley, Anderson, and Ordinitz (eds.), Handbook of Texas, II, 594 (Denison, Texas); III, 298 (Grayson County); V, 777 (Missouri‐Kansas‐Texas Railroad); V, 1022 (Sherman, Texas); Kumler, “They Have Gone”, 20. 5 Tyler, Bornett, Barkley, Anderson, and Ordinitz (eds.), Handbook of Texas, II, 594 (Denison, Texas); III, 298 (Grayson County); V, 1022 (Sherman, Texas); Kumler, “They Have Gone”, 21. 4 nearly every part of the country. The state’s first electric interurban railway was also established during this time, linking Sherman to Denison, and eventually (after becoming part of the Texas Electric Railway Company) making Denison the northern terminus on a line that ran through Dallas to Waco.6 Such connections meant more manufacturing business, and by 1910 Grayson had “forty‐seven gins, five cottonseed oil mills, two cotton factories, four saw mills, eight flouring mills, several machine shops, brick plants, ice factories, broom factories, etc.” Between the censuses taken in 1909, 1914 and 1919, Grayson’s main cities experienced major growth in their value of manufactured products.